Heifer in ditch

This hot weather is tiring me out. 85 F today. It is even warm when I get up - 60s. That is what our high temperature was last week and we were glad to be that warm.

Jan stopped by while out for her morning walk. We went over to see my "girls". They all freaked out when they saw Jan and quickly moved back from the fence to the middle of the corral. Who is this?! I forgot I was the only person they've seen up close since coming to the ranch.

Jan said, "Here Boss. Here Boss." After a bit, and with some hesitation, the braver ones came closer and one stretched her neck and head to reach Jan's outstretched hand. Both Jan and the heifer got a surprise when the heifer tried to lick Jan's hand and Jan reacted.

I got lots more bread from the Food Bank. They were happy to give me what they call "the bricks" - the old hard bread no one else takes. They even gave me an extra cake; which was not old or hard. I am keeping the cake for myself.

With the hot weather I lost all ambition. I didn't dig any more on my garden. I planned to plant seeds in the already dug part, but didn't get to it. First I watered my fruit trees and bushes. Bob had told me to add a half gallon of Miracle Grow water to each of my thornless triple crown blackberry bushes to get them going. I noticed that one of the bushes was starting from the roots. The other one - nothing.

Even running the water full blast it took quite a time to water all the trees and bushes. One plum tree was planted where another tree used to be as I found a rotted stump when I dug the hole to plant the tree a few years ago. Consequently when I water the tree the water never fills the ditch around the tree. One of my pear trees is the same. It was planted over/near a pocket gopher tunnel and I suspect the water found a quick way to get down into the tunnel.

Before noon I let the cattle out of the corral and into the yard. They were pretty well behaved... I noticed that two smaller to mid-sized heifers don't like each other. The rest of the herd would be off on the side of the yard and these two would be in the middle of the yard fighting over the same few inches of grass. Nothing special about that grass - it just that the other one wanted it.

Later they would fight near the big tree, or elsewhere. Head to head pushing one back. Or head to side. Or one would drop to her knees and fight. And when one would give up and move on, the other would stand and glare at the departing heifer. None of the steers last year took their disagreements as personally as these heifers. And here I thought having female cattle would mean better tempered cattle. Was I wrong!

For the most part my fencing worked to keep the cattle from areas where they shouldn't be. I did find the fence by the well to tipped over. I got another fence post and more wire and straightened it up. When watering my fruit trees I discovered why the fence as tipped on its side earlier - one heifer used the top of the fence to scratch her neck. This time my fence stayed up.

After a late afternoon catnap I decided to check my pocket gopher traps. The cattle were in the back yard near the stock trailer. As the cattle had behaved themselves all day I let them be and walked out into the hayfield and pasture. I only planned to be away from the yard a short time. Little did I know I would be away for an hour.

I had caught a few gophers and it took a little time to finds new tunnels. Then it took a few minutes to find the last trap. Before finding the last trap I found yet another "iceberg" stump. *sigh* I dug around it to dry it out for later burning. It was early evening now and even working in the shade I completely soaked my tshirt and sweat ran from my face. My blood must still be thick from the recent cooler weather - this is why I sweat so easily and am lethargic and sleepy.

I decided to bring my wheel barrow and tools back to the house as it looks like I won't be burning more stumps anytime soon. As I pushed the wheel barrow through the hayfield I noticed the cattle where in the front yard near the road. Wait a minute... is one or more heifers outside the fence in the ditch?! Can't be... but it looks like it. This is not good as this spot is on the bend in the road and many cars zoom by faster than the speed limit of 35 mph. If the heifer got hit my profit for the year would be gone.

I started to run back to the house pushing the wheel barrow. Wouldn't you know it... after having the wheel barrow all this time with no problems, today the front wheel came off. Ya got to be kidding me! Now of all time for this to happen!

I left the wheel barrow and rushed back to the yard. Sure enough one heifer was standing in the ditch eating the grass while the others were inside the fence watching her and trying to figure out how to join her. I shoo'ed them away from the fence and back towards the house taking care not to excite the heifer outside the fence. Last thing I needed was for her to get excited and run out into the road.

Once the rest of the herd was far enough away I opened the gate. A car came up the road at this time and one of the two women in the car asked if I needed help. Sure. But before she could park the car and get out to help me I was able to herd the heifer back towards the gate and she ran inside and over to join the herd. *whew* My profit is saved.

How she got out of the yard is a mystery. This was a medium to large heifer, not some small ballerina type of heifer. The gate was attached and in good condition. I had made the gate tall enough to not jump over - or so I believe. I attached boards and have the wires tight so the cattle can't push up and crawl underneath the gate - which I seen several years ago after being puzzled how one heifer would consistently get out of a locked pasture. The fence seems to be high enough the cattle should not be able to jump over it - especially a decent sized heifer. So unless someone driving by stopped to open the gate to let the heifer out, she must have jumped the fence somehow.

I herded the cattle back into the corral. They didn't try hiding behind the stock trailer tonight and went into the corral after realizing they couldn't fake me out by running around the house. I chewed the cattle out telling them they were to stay in the yard for their own safety. We'll see if this sticks with them.

Darn kids!

Cattle in the yard

Monday was a warm day. 86 F on my thermometer. Record highs forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday in the upper 80s. Last week we had a record low of 23 F. You know it is warm when one goes from making sure to stand in the sun to keep warm to standing in the shade to keep cool. I had shed my flannel shirt and only wore a tshirt today. Felt strange without my flannel shirt after all these months.

I went into my house's crawl space and opened the two vents to get outside air circulating in the crawl space. I rolled up the plastic I had laid on the crawl space's dirt floor last Fall. I want to make sure no moisture is trapped and mold starts.

I dug more in my garden. 70% dug now.

I am getting near the end of the hay bales. With the warmer weather the grass is growing. I know, what with all the hassles last year of having cattle eat my yard down, I wasn't going to have them in my yard again. Well... I got the idea of using some of the rolls of field fence I bought the past year to protect my tulips north and south of the house, and the shrubs in front of the house.

I also had a roll to protect the well pump house as cattle, for some reason, like to tear the asphalt roofing shingles from its roof. The field fence is easier to install and nicer to view than the assorted pallets, tables, chairs, ladders and what-not I used to protect all this stuff last year.

I added more strands of wire to the two wires that act as a gate across the driveway. The front gate now is good enough that I don't have to park my pickup in front of the gate to ensure it keeps the cattle in the yard.

I finished with the fences and gate by evening and opened the corral gate to let "my girls" into the yard. It didn't take long for the first four heifers to enter the yard and quickly the others followed.

"Munch! Munch! Munch!" they all went on the grass. A very pleasant sound to my ears. I sat and watched the cattle move across the yard. They would look up at me occasionally but mainly concentrated on eating fresh green grass.

I found the smallest heifer is the most leary of me. I guess I had noticed it in the corral; she won't take bread from me and keeps her distance when I fed hay. Tonight after the herd has moved away from her, she suddenly noticed. Keeping an eye on me sitting there she ran to rejoin the herd.

I took a look at the "girls"; my first look in a while. Some still have some of the dried manure on their coats from when they first arrived. Others are cleaner and some heifers are losing their winter coat and getting a sleeker finer coat. Most all have fine sleek hair on their head and necks. The hardest part from which to get rid of the winter hair is their bellies and for some their mid-sides.

After a couple of hours, and since it was starting to get dark, it was time for them to go back into the corral for the night. Umm... no one wanted to go back in the corral. Fancy that! While the herd was back near the corral fence, they hung around the stock trailer. The walk-through gate I made this spring was near and I was able to open it without scaring off the herd. Still they didn't want to enter the corral; most were munching away on the grass.

It was getting dark, and it is hard to see black cattle in the dark. Great. I was able to herd half into the corral in ones and twos. The remaining six hung back behind the stock trailer hoping if they were out of sight they would be out of mind and I would go away. With some work I was finally able to herd them back into the corral. This all took over a half hour. Hopefully with time, and a longer time in the yard, they will be easier to herd back into the corral in the future.

It was so dark now I wasn't sure if all 12 were in the corral. I had to get my flashlight and walking around the corral count them. The cattle were mostly sitting chewing their cud and weren't bothered by me and did not move when I got near and shined the flashlight on them. Good. They were getting agitated earlier when I was herding them back into the corral.

Last night they were in a wild mood. They would run from one end of the corral to the other as fast as they could and then back again. Over and over. Once I realized it wasn't just once or twice I walked over to see what was the matter. Thinking I had bread they ran over to me. They all were breathing hard. I had no bread but my action broke the cycle of their running and they were calm after that.

I opened another bottle of my beet wine to have with my supper tonight. Either the wine's alcohol content has increased with age, else I am more susceptible for some reason to the alcohol tonight. Two small glasses and bam! I felt its affects. Hours later now I still can still feel some of its effects. It still affects my typing, so once I spell check this post, I am off to bed to sleep it off. Unfortunately my spell checker doesn't also correct grammer.

Family Forestry Expo

Sunday I attended the 17th annual forestry expo held at the Trumbull Creek Educational forest. Another gorgeous day! I rode my bicycle to the site and arrived in time to eat the "logging camp" lunch: hot dogs, potato chips, chili and pop.

The eating area was long picnic tables under tarps. A small fire was smoldering in the center fire ring and occasionally the faint breeze blew the smoke my way. At the next table I overheard part of an old couple's conversation: "He is 65 and in debt. She is 65 and in debt. We may have a small place but its paid for."

After lunch was over the expo held several demonstrations. Before the demonstrations started the announcer gave away several floating beer coolers. One cooler went to the oldest audience member: a man of 75. The other cooler was given to whoever had traveled from the farthest away. The winner was a couple from southern England.

The first demonstration was by the local college (Flathead Valley Community College: FVCC) logging sports team. Yes, such a thing exists. They travel around the NW U.S. competing with other college teams in logging events.

The school team was split in two teams, and had extra members of area natives who attend other schools, and even a couple of professionals who have competed on ESPN. A couple sitting near me had a daughter on the team who had a scholorship to be on the team. An outdoorsy girl they said she started riding horses at 4 yrs old. She was the woman who competed against the guys in the log splitting competition.

The announcer gave background on the challenges and explained their roots in logging practices of old and how the challenges grew out of showing off logging skills. That made the challenges more interesting, rather than it being a mindless game.

The grandstand was divided in half to holler and clap for their team. I was on the green team. The green team won most of the challenges. Go team!

The teams seemed to be equally male and female. Yes, a few women one wouldn't want to get in a fight with, but surprisingly most women weren't muscular. One girl looked to be barely 100 lbs. Several women looked really nice in their tight fitting jeans! Either those tight fitting jeans were slowing some women down, else they were going to split those jeans during the competitions!

One challenge was to cut through a log using a crosscut saw. The green team was male and the blue team was female. The men won, but I heard a murmurings from a few women in the green team crowd around me that the men's log already had a cut started. I noticed the logs were not the same diameter to begin with and think the cut was a way to make the diameter of both team's logs the same.

There were more crosscut competitions between women teams, and also between mixed sexed teams. The green team usually won.

There was a race to the top of two very tall poles using a belt and shoes with spikes. One guy was a professional so they had his requirement to go the top and then back to the ground, while the other guy only had to go to the top. The pro won. Having to go back down didn't take long as he was almost in free fall going down. A person has to have very strong legs and arms to compete in this challenge!

A competition throwing a two-headed ax, which grew out of how the loggers moved equipment from tree to tree in the old days.

One competition between two women was to stand with one hand on the end of long logs, which were leaning over a very large log - similar to a see-saw. At "go!" they grabbed their chainsaws and raced to the other end of the log, then ran up and along the log to the end, started their chainsaws, cut through the log, then raced back down and then back to the end of the log where they originally started. The barely 100 lb girl won, and it appeared she took her time walking back down the log to give the other girl a chance. The announcer said this was one of the few logging events where the women compete against the men, with the women doing well as the event requires speed and balancing over strength.

A male/female crosscut team competed against a guy using a chainsaw to cut through logs. The teams finished in a dead heat but most people were cheering the crosscut team on.

There were a number of ax chopping challenges.

• guys chopping through standing logs (representing trees)
  
• a female student, two male students, and a pro chopping through logs they stood on (all wore steel toe covers!). The announcer counted from 1 to 33. At "3" the woman started cutting, at "13" one male student, at "23" the other male student, at "33" the pro. The announcer stopped first at "20" to complain he had a dry throat, then again at "30". Still the pro won as he went through the log like nothing. Then "23" finished next, then the woman just beat out the last guy. The crowd was cheering the woman on at the end.
• lastly a pro demonstrated "spring board" cutting. This is how the loggers would "climb" a tree to get where the large diameter trees were narrow enough to cut with a crosscut saw. He would chop a notch in the tree trunk and then place a board in the notch. He would climb up and stand on the board to chop another notch higher up the tree, climb up on that board now 8 or more feet off the ground to chop the log (tree) down. Chop! Chop! Chop! and he was done. Amazing! The board he stood on looked like it would fall out of the log any minute as the guy chopped hard and fast against the log and bounced out on the springboard.
  

Two guys with chainsaws competed in a chair cutting contest. They had 3 minutes to cut a small chair out of a log. The green team guy finished in less than 3 minutes and had a nice chair - he even had carved holes in the back of the chair. The chairs were given to two kids selected from the crowd. The girls looked to be about 2 yrs and didn't know what to make of their parents dragging them from the stands and plopping them in the chairs in front of everyone.

Then they demonstrated how 70% of western Montana forests are logged today in what they call "mechanical logging". One guy operated a clipper, which is a machine on tracks and has a long arm that grabs the tree near the bottom, then has a saw that cuts through the tree. The clipper hold the tree upright to then move it over to be laid down on a pile.

The skidder is next. This large rubber tired machine then takes the pile of cut trees and drags them over to the harvester. The harvester is a long cutting machine. Its "arm" picks up the trees one at a time and puts them on the machine which moves the tree back and forth lengthwise to determine its length and width. It cuts off all the branches, then cuts the trunk into lengths which a lever ejects from the machine onto the ground.

Another machine, the "grabber" I think it's called, takes the trailer part of the logging truck & trailer off the back of the truck and hooks it up to the truck. Then it grabs a bunch of logs from the ground and loads them on the truck. All the manpower needed is a guy for each machine. The machines all total about one million dollars.

Then they demonstrated a horse team that used to do the work the skidder now does. Two large beautiful horses with a guy on a platform over two large wheels. Under the platform is a hook that hooked onto a cable or chain wrapped around several large long logs. He demonstrated the various ways he has the horses team hook up to the logs, and how they could pull the logs. Impressive. He really had the horses trained well as they did everything they were suppose to based on his verbal commands.

Lastly the forest service showed off a 9 mule pack train. They showed a variety of items the mules carry and how they are carried. Mule trains are used where motorized vehicles are not allowed in the national forests.

After the demonstration was over I went on the .7 mile walking tour through the forest. They had an exhibit on fish and water insects next to the mountain stream. Another exhibit showed barred and great horned owls along with a red tailed hawk. Another exhibit was on insects that kill trees. At an exhibit showing tree rings I got a free tree. The tree was 3 inches tall and was an engelmann spruce. Now if my cattle don't eat it before it grows up!

Earlier I had noticed two guys and a girl. They all looked to be around 20. The fat guy was the third wheel. The girl wore the fashionable low rider jeans. They were tight and it appeared the only thing keeping them from falling down were the suspenders she wore. Later in the day when it was warmer she no longer wore the suspenders and the jeans were still staying up - somehow.

Earlier in the grandstand, while waiting for the demonstrations to start a middle aged man spilled his cup of ice (I didn't see any pop spilled). In the row below was another woman with low rise jeans and bare skin between the jeans and her blouse. It appears she felt the ice against her skin. She picked a few ice cubes off her and handed it back to him. I wonder if he got distracted by her and that caused him to knock his cup of ice over?

On the way home I saw the native plant nursery in the area was open. It is only open on weekends. Well, I thought it was open. The owner was closing for the day and was rolling down and tieing the sides of her greenhouse. All these years and I never have been in this nursery. Yes, she does sell serviceberry bushes so I plan to go back next weekend and check out what she sells and hopefully buy some more serviceberry bushes. While huckleberries are the "in" berry out here, she said her husband agrees with me in my preference for serviceberries.

Two partridges ran from my back door as I rode up the driveway. I didn't find any signs of mischief.

Warm sunny day on a lush lawn

Our weather is very nice. The lows overnight still go below freezing, but now our daily highs are in the 70s. 73 F Saturday with a prediction of upper 70s Sunday and maybe lows 80s next week. 80s will be hot!

Saturday I attended another auction. This auction was items from three estates. The items mainly were antiques, glassware and furniture. Nothing I was really interested in, but you never know what all they were selling. Since the auction was at the fairgrounds in town I rode my bicycle to check it out.

I arrived an hour and a half after the auction started. I only counted 24 people attending. Hard to have an auction with so few people. Not sure why so few people; maybe because it was a gorgeous day, maybe it was because it is Mother's Day weekend. Who knows?! Items seemed to sell cheaply and a number of items were not sold if no one started bidding at $2.

The only thing I was interested in was an old wooden croquet set. But it looked like it wouldn't be sold for another hour or so. Even at a probable very cheap price it wasn't worth sticking around for, and I left.

I decided I would attend the annual Family Forestry Expo held this weekend. I've meant to attend each year I've been here but something else would come up. The expo was at the north end of the valley; a number of miles away.

A gorgeous sunny windless day, and the road I took had views of all the surrounding mountains. The west mountains, lower, had no snow. But straight to the north, while the ski area was now closed for the season, snow still covered much of the ski runs on Big Mountain. To the NE, through the gap, the Glacier Park mountains were still all covered in white.

My route to the expo took me relatively near where I live and checking the time I decided to forgo the expo today. Sunday hopefully I can attend. Else, another year and another excuse as to why I didn't attend the expo. At least I got a 20 mile bicycle ride in on a beautiful day.

I dug my garden more today. 65% done.

I noticed this morning that one of my two pears trees has blossoms. Usually my apricot trees blossom first. One cherry tree looks as if it will blossom next. Only one of Bob's pear trees is blossoming. It is the same variety bought at the same nursery last year as my pear tree.

I visited with Bob and Jan. They had pieces of their old wood deck for me to use as scrapwood. They were starting up their underground lawn sprinklers for the first time this year. Jan and I ran around to check all the sprinkler heads for each section were working when that section was activated.

Bob waters and fertilizes his lawn well and he has a very nice lush green lawn. It was nice to sit on the lawn in the warm sun, talk, and sip a cool drink. I am not sure what Jan gave me to drink but after two bottles I had a slight buzz.

Dad's anniversary

Today, May 13, is the 4th anniversary of dad's death. Initially it seemed longer than four years, but after some thought, yes, four years is right. Dad passed away on a warm sunny day like today.

Digging and animals

I spent most of today digging the ground to prepare for my garden. I am at 55% complete. How do I know? My garden is 10 fence posts in length and I have dug 5 1/2 lengths so far. Due to all the weeds and grass I have to remove I seem to only dig 10% each day.

And that's not all my digging. After I catch pocket gophers I have to dig to find new tunnels to place my traps. I also dig around tree stumps. Yes, I found yet another mostly submerged tree stump in the south pasture. At least the other three or four items of wood peaking out of the ground here and there were just that, and not more tree stumps.

A decent sized whitetail deer came walking through the south pasture as I was digging around the tree stump. It was heading back towards the trees along the river. Either I missed it coming out of the trees earlier or it is roaming boldly during the late afternoon. Once it noticed me it ran off at a trot. Upon reaching my fence it easily bounded over it. It was like it had springs for legs as it seemed to go "boing" over the fence.

Two large geese were in the river near the nest I found earlier. They got out of the water and walked towards the nest. As the nest has no babies and some broken (hatched?) shells nearby I looked for baby geese following these two but saw none. Upon noticing me one goose stood up tall with its neck straight and started to honk loudly. After a minute of this racket they walked back to the river and got in. A couple of ducks across the river took flight and then so did the geese. Still no sign of baby geese. I doubt the geese would fly off without them.

Elsewhere near the river I found several large pieces of an animal skeleton. One leg had a birdlike claw. Maybe a duck skeleton? I'm not sure as the entire skeleton could not be found.

Just after sundown, as I rode my bicycle along the road, I saw a large owl fly up out of the field east of my place and the road. The owl flew to the top of the telephone pole next to the road. It was huge! The owl could easily fly off with a cat or small dog.

After a nice day, late afternoon the wind blew. 21 mph gusting to 28 mph. Reminded me of North Dakota and Minnesota. The wind was annoying and made digging of my garden that much slower.

Cattle, insurance, digging

A difference between heifers and steers:

• last year when the steers were done eating in the evening they would often "wrestle". They would go head-to-head in a contest as to who could push who backwards. Nothing seemed personal about it. After the contest was over they would amble off.
• with heifers it doesn't seem so friendly. I noticed a few times the heifers seemed to be more personal when pushing one another. After the winner pushed the other back she would eye the loser to underscore her feeling. And I see more pushing head-to-side by the heifers in an attempt to win, while the steers tended to go head-to-head.

Insurance:

Today I got a letter from my insurance company, Assurant. It appears they changed their mind and will now treat my cataract surgery as "in-network" and will pay 100% of the cost (minus the deductible), instead considering it out-of-network and only paying 80%. Good, as the cataract clinic is an in-network health care provider to both Assurant and to my PPO health provider. Earlier they both used the argument that as a MT resident anything done in North Dakota was out-of-network. I countered that there is no in-network cataract clinic in my county - which is the size of the state of Connecticut. In fact there is no in-network eye care provider for over 100 miles from where I live. I am glad Assurant listened to reason as it saves me from appealing to the MT State Auditor.

Now if I can get Assurant to pay for my first set of glasses needed because of the cataract surgery. Medicare covers the cost, and other insurance companies do, but Assurant is balking.

Garden:

Our low was only 31 F last night. Far better than the low 20s F of the previous days. The past few days I have been digging my garden. Even with these low temperatures, while I can't transplant my starter plants outside just yet, I should have my garden dug by now. I am about halfway done digging. I still have a number of days left before I finish. That is if I keep at it. Today I only dug for a little over an hour. I rode my bicycle uptown to pay a bill and then took the long way home enjoying the ride.

The digging is going slow due to all the weeds I have to pull. The weeds are partly because last year part of the garden failed and I didn't keep that section weeded. But the weeds are also partly because they are nasty. I kept my strawberry patch weeded last year and now I see it is overrun with weeds. My next project after I get my garden dug.


After two days I was able to find all my pocket gopher traps today. And I didn't let the cattle's water tank overflow. I better go to bed now before I get back on the tired/forgetful path once again.

Early to bed resolution

So much for my plan to go to bed before midnight. My new resolution broken after one day. Last night I went to bed before midnight. Ergo, no post written last night. Tonight.. look what time it is!!!

I made my 'earlier to bed' resolution after forgetting I left the water running to the cattle tank yet again yesterday. Two times in two days! I thought: I'll fill the water tank while I feed the cattle bread. Doing only one thing instead of several; and feeding the bread won't take long, only minutes.

I was wandering in the south pasture looking, and looking, for that final pocket gopher trap when I suddenly remembered I forgot to turn off the water. I ran all the way home to find water overflowing the tank. *sigh* Between my forgetting yet again and being tired from that run I figured I should stop burning the candle at both ends and get more sleep.

It worked as today I remembered to turn the water off. Tomorrow.... we'll see after a late night tonight.

I returned to the pasture to search for the final pocket gopher trap. I set the traps just 24 hours previously; how could I forget where they all were?! Is it here... I remember looking for dirt hills here... nope. How 'bout here... I remember checking here. Nope. Around and around the pine trees I searched for that last trap. I retraced where I remembered walking the previous day. Hmmm... the tree stump is still smoldering. Finally I found the final trap. Empty.

Today I didn't make it out to check the traps. So after a late night tonight, and two days since setting the traps, will I remember where they all are tomorrow (later today)?

This morning while making breakfast I heard noise from outside my house. Going outside I found the electric company at one of my telephone poles. Two guys were checking it for rot. They had dug around the pole and now one guy was using a drill the size of a chain saw to drill a section of the pole to see if it was rotted. It wasn't. I have two poles in the yard. The other guy asked me the location of four other poles. They were on my neighbor's land across the river to supply electricity to his irrigation pump. I showed him where the poles went starting from the road then along my southern property line to the river and across. However his map ended in the middle of my property. The poles on my southern boundary were not on his map and he wasn't to check them. Odd. One would think their maps would be on road boundaries, if not property boundaries. Their map wasn't even on a section line boundary. It made no sense why the map ended where it did. *shrug*

That snow/graupel storm we had the other day did one robin in. I found it in front of my house.

Btw - after talking to Bob I learned my "pheasants" are really called partridges. I can't seem to walk anywhere without scaring up a pair of them. I must have more than one pair roaming around here.

Running water on a wild weather day

A crazy day. First off let me say I have to come up with a way to remind me that I have the water running to fill the cattle's water trough. Yes, again I forgot I had the water running. Multi-tasking and I don't work well together. Yup, I am a guy. I had 20 minutes before the show "The Apprentice" started and I rushed to feed the cattle hay and also get the outside digital rain gauge off the fence as the indicator showed the battery was low (the gauge didn't read the recent moisture).

I noticed the cattle had rubbed against the open gate dividing the corral and somehow got the hook that holds the gate open out of the barn wall. I couldn't find the hook in the snow/graupel and decided to put in another one. Seeing the water tank could use more water I thought I'd run the water as I attached the other hook. It would be only a few minutes, and how could I forget to turn the water off?

After I got another hook that required a wrench to install I found the original hook that required a hammer. Ran to the tool shed to get the hammer. Put the old hook back in the barn wall. Got the rain gauge and got in the house in time to watch "The Apprentice" from the beginning (I missed last week's episode).

After "The Apprentice" was over I went outside and saw water running across the lawn. Augh!

Like I said I need a way to remind me the water is turned on. The hose runs a distance from the well and not from the house. Since the end of the hose is in the water I can't see or hear the water running.

Maybe something similar to Futuregirl's little handiwork to tell if the dishwasher has clean or dirty dishes. Her web site explains the reasoning behind making it (yah, those annoying husbands! ) and how to make them.


I am not feeling creative now so it is going to take some time for me to come up with an appropriate indicator for my water situation.

The rest of my day? I checked the burning tree stumps and found that both stumps had burnt into the ground, and not just the one I had predicted. The one I thought wouldn't burn completely all burnt, and the other was still smoldering. I also checked on the SW pasture burning stump. It was still smoldering from under the ground, although I now had to get close to see the smoke rising from the hole.

So, done with burning tree stumps for this year? Well... no. I started to fill the dirt back into some of the earlier burnt stump holes and found two cases where parts of the stump had been hidden under the dirt on the side. *sigh* Also when checking the pocket gopher traps I came across two more stumps barely peaking above the ground (like icebergs) in the south pasture. *another sigh* Here I thought I was done with stumps in the south pasture.

I need to get digging on my garden so I'll have to deal with these stumps another day. I did dig around them to help them dry out for easier burning later.

I forgot to mention that I also burnt a large ant hill last week. Big red & black ants had made a hill almost a foot high from pine needles. Pine needles burn. No more ant hill. It is now a hole in the ground.

The weather today was all over the place. While not warm (our high temp was 54 F), it felt fine then cold then fine. I was zipping and unzipping my coat far more than I cared to. Sun, rain, graupel... over and over. Every so often I had to duck under a large pine tree until the moisture passed by. Most of the moisture missed me as the current weather pattern is west-to-east, which means the mountains get the moisture with little reaching the valley floor. Some cool looking blue clouds dumping a blue/white mass of rain/graupel when the clouds hit the Rocky Mountains. With the various rain clouds we would get sudden short intense bursts of wind. When the wind accompanied the moisture I stood on the leeward side of a large tree trunk to stay warm.

I planned on digging more of my garden but the weather discouraged that. In the house, after watching the local weather forecast and before supper, I fell asleep for a while. (These late nights catch up to me! ) I remember hearing the wind, feeling a little cold as I was on the loveseat by the window, and also hearing rain against the window.

Once I was able to wake myself I discovered it was more than rain; the ground and short areas of the grass were white from snow or graupel. Water was running off the roofs. The temperature was 34 F. To the SE a very large and very dark blue cloud slowly moved away. To the north and northwest there were lighter clouds with breaks. The snow on Big Mountain's ski runs glowed white and the remaining mountains seemed to glow white even though not enough snow fell to make a difference that could be seen at this distance.

Good thing I hadn't fed the cattle their supper hay yet. I waited for some of the snow/graupel to melt before going out to feed them. A few were out and about with the rest smartly sitting in the shelter of the loafing shed. Their breath were two columns of white as they breathed out their nose. From some of the heifer's bodies steam rose. Rising steam helped me avoid fresh cow pies.

Is this late spring? What month is it? May? Really?!

Slow day after a cold front

A cold front came through last night. Yesterday our high was 69 F and today's high was 52 F. Overcast and windy with occasional sprinkles of rain. Not a nice day.

Today I discovered I left my flashlight at the auction place. I had used it when tieing down my last load of wood last night. I must have set the flashlight on the ground. I went back today and could not find it. Somebody else must have found it. It was a nice flashlight. It looks like people are already removing some of the buildings as a very small one is gone and the building they conducted much of the auction from is missing half its roof.

The tulips on the south side of the house are all flowering red and yellow. Pretty. On the north side of the house the tulips are still forming their flowers.

Lots of robins this year. Must be because it is a wetter year?

The cattle had extra energy this afternoon. As I was putting away some of the stuff I bought at the auction the herd would run from one end of the corral to the other and back again. Back and forth and back and forth. What's going on?! But then they settled down and took their afternoon siesta.

Other than feeding my cattle and putting away much of what I bought yesterday, I didn't spend much time outside today. Instead I watched the last four episodes of the TV show, Six Feet Under. The DVD is due back at the library Tuesday so I had to finish watching the episodes. As they were the last four episodes for the third season they had plenty happening. A very good show, although probably not for everyone due to some of the show's themes.

Auction on Three Mile

No tree stump burning today. Instead I attended two auctions. It is either feast or famine with auctions. After no nearby auctions in recent weeks two good auctions close by today.

The first one was NE of where I live. I rode my bicycle over to check it out. This auctioneer is trying to start up an annual consignment auction and flea market. Less than a half dozen sellers at the flea market. The auction appeared to be mainly old stuff people brought from their back pasture. Old, old tractors and other farm equipment. Nothing of interest to me. The odds-and-ends stuff from the flatbed trailer they were auctioning didn't interest me either. The only thing of interest were a few large chain link fence gates. They were in another row and some time away so I rode home then drove to the second auction. This second auction was being conducted by Bobby Roshon who I like as an auctioneer.

The second auction was on Three Mile Drive west of town. The few acres of the old ranch was almost surrounded by new housing developments. Across the road were earth moving equipment parked on this Saturday. When the wind gusted from that direction the dust blew in the air. I hadn't been in this part of the valley for some time now and was surprised by all the new houses.

Near the end of the auction I spoke with the owner, who looked to be in his late 40s. He was selling out because of all the new subdivisions and all the traffic that drives on the narrow two-lane Three Mile Drive by his house. He, one of the auctioneer's helpers, and I all wondered who are all these new people and what jobs are they doing that they can afford to buy all these new houses. The auctioneer's helper works as an insulation installer and said because of the fast building the quality of the houses often isn't good, and he has worked on fixing mistakes and mold in houses only a few years old.

Both auctions had a lower than average turnout. Both crowds would have made an ok crowd for one auction. I don't know why more people weren't at the auctions.

Although I arrived an hour and a half after the auction started they were still selling stuff out of a building/workshop. There were some items I was interested in so I stayed. When the sun was out I was fine but when a large cloud blocked the sun and the wind blew I wish I had brought my light coat.

As the owner was selling his place they also auctioned off all the buildings except the house. The buildings had to be removed by July. Lots of old small in-need-of-paint buildings. The auction ad indicated the buildings were from the 1920s. They even auctioned off an outhouse. I didn't pay too much attention to what the buildings sold for but it wasn't much. At most around $100 or so.

The exception was the old rough lumber barn with hand hewn logs. It looked old. When I asked the owner later how old the farm was he didn't know. He said he was the third owner. The barn was 25' by 46' with a hay loft and side wings, so it wasn't a large barn. It sold for $1850. Old barn lumber is in demand around here. Still it will be quite a job to take that barn apart.

Lots of rooster items were auctioned off: rooster cookie jars, clocks, figurines, signs, plaques, etc. A former girlfriend collects roosters. If she was here I could have bought her lots of nice rooster items cheap.

The owner must have trapped animals as many different kinds of traps were auctioned off.

I seen an old metal device that one puts around a calf's neck so it won't crawl through a barb wire fence. If the calf tries, the metal device will bend at a hinge putting pressure on the calf's neck discouraging the calf from trying any further. It only went for a few dollars but I didn't bid on it.

There was a partial roll of a new woven wire fence but I didn't bid as two bidders bid it higher than I was willing to pay. I dropped out of bidding on a barrel of handles. I seen a good ax handle in the barrel that I wanted but wasn't willing to pay $6 for the barrel. $6 was probably a good deal if I wanted more than the one handle, but the other guy seem to definitely want the barrel of handles. I also didn't get a pail, nor a box, of long nails as other bidders wanted them and I was so-so in my desire as I didn't have an immediate need for the nails. 15 or more old steel fence posts sold for $17, more than I was willing to pay.

I out bid another guy for two partial rolls of field fence. I out bid a lady on 24 new and treated 6'6" wooden fence posts. As the auctioneer started the bidding the lady commented only one post was sharpened on the end so she wasn't willing to pay much. I got the posts for $6. That was a great deal. Sharpened ends or not they were good posts. I'll just dig the hole a little deeper when setting the posts instead of digging a partial hole then driving the posts in the rest of the way.

I also got a lot of odds and ends including rolls of chicken wire and a bottle capper. I think I can use this to seal any more bottles of wine that I make. It is not as nice as Rod's bottle capper, but looks like it will work.

All total I spent $10 for my loot. A pretty good deal. I noticed they had wood corral/fence panels by the barn. When I asked the owner at the end if the auctioneer sold them he said yes. Still, I didn't think I missed their selling. After loading my fence posts and wire I told the owner if there was a mistake and the wood panels weren't sold, to contact me. He told me he spoke with the auctioneer after I first asked him about them and the auctioneer forgot to sell them. I didn't know what to offer for them and when the owner asked $20 for them all I accepted.

Now at the auction, if no one else wanted them I could have gotten the panels for less. If someone else bid near the $20 I would have dropped out as I didn't really need the wood corral/fence. But I thought I could use some of them as pasture gates. I had been thinking of building wooden gates to replace some of the barb wire gates.

Getting them all home took some effort as they are heavy and it took several trips. The 12 or so panels are 5' by 8'. I also got four 3' by 8' panels and a pile of miscellaneous poles and lumber with the deal.

After getting the stuff home I am back-and-forth as to whether I should have bought the wood panels. They are great for a corral but I am mainly done with my corral, and what I haven't rebuilt, I have plans for a chain link fence. The panels are made of thick boards and in additional to being a barrier to the animals, they are a barrier to see through. I notice that my cattle like to take their siestas in the corral area near the chain link fence so they can see the view.

If I use the panels as gates in my barb wire pasture fences they certainly will stand out. I'll sleep on it and maybe feel better about buying them in the morning and think of a good use for them. Part of my regret came when I had to find a place to store them for now. Sometimes I seem to accumulate stuff faster than I can use it, or store it in an organized manner.

Mouse, gophers, and stumps

This morning I found a dead mouse in my mousetrap. Whoa... how did a mouse get in the house? I've only had two small mice in the house (last fall) after I insulated and sealed the house. This is spring. Why would a mouse want to come in the house in springtime? It's a dead mouse now.

I finally got to checking my pocket gopher traps after a few days now. Four dead pocket gophers. While pocket gophers are solitary, this is breeding season and sometimes a pair of them are in a tunnel complex. In one trap I caught the second one of two. In another trap I saw the tunnel was sealed with dirt against the trap with a dead pocket gopher completely inside the trap. A sign the mate is still in the tunnel.

I finally caught the pocket gopher in the last trap in the hayfield. But today when I was returning my neighbor's harrow I seen fresh dirt mounds. *sigh* So I am not done trapping the hayfield after all.

While checking the traps I also looked in on the still smoldering tree stump in the SW pasture. It is still smoking steadily. A large hole goes underground, but no fire could be seen today. Maybe it won't go all the way to China after all.

Of my five remaining tree stumps from yesterday I only have two left today. Two burnt down and another stump's side roots were thinned enough by fire I was able to cut through them. The tap root was short and I was able to wrestle the stump from the ground. I added more wood and re-burnt the final two stumps. I have a feeling tomorrow I will only have one stump left.

To get the fire going I have been getting dead grass from my northern neighbor's pile. Mr. D brought more dead grass from his lawn while I was there. He grew up in this area and is a logger. We had a conversation about the logging now (the loggers are currently waiting for the mountain roads to firm up after the spring thaw) and logging in the old days.

Mr D. told me the hard-to-burn stumps are larch (or tamarack). They are hard to burn; they do not rot in the ground; tough tree stumps to remove. The easy-to-burn stumps (like the one in the SW pasture) are yellow pine. Lots of pitch in these stumps. When they burn they have a sweet campfire smell.

I pushed the dirt back into the holes of a couple of former tree stumps. Without the stumps the spots are now low spots.

We had another cold night last night as we tied our record low of 26 F. At least the day was nice with a high temperature of 67 F and lots of sun.

Another burning day

Another day of burning tree stumps. I am getting close to being done for the year. Of the two stumps in the north pasture I declared victory. While I like the tree stump to be a hole in the ground with ashes where the stump stood, the effort to burn the stump down another two inches on each try is getting old. Since these stumps are now a half foot below ground level I feel this is good enough.

Later when the stump and ashes cool and quit the little smoldering they are now doing, I will fill the dirt dug from around the stump back into the hole and in the coming years no one will know a stump once stood there. Years later someone can be surprised to find a stump there.

This happened to me when digging in my garden. The other week I was using my spade to turn the soil and going deep I struck a hard object. I found it to be the top of a small stump. I dug a large hole around the stump to be able to pull it from the ground. I failed to remove the stump as one root kept going down and down. After some effort with an ax I was able to break off the top 6 inches. No tree has stood there for decades. The wood was dense, heavy and just as it was when a tree grew from it. All this time did not rot or soften the wood. I think the same will be true for the two stumps in the north pasture. Their wood is dense.

Even from the house I can see the smoke rising from the smoldering stump in the far SW pasture. That hole must be halfway to China by now!

I have five stumps left that I am burning in the middle pasture. Two stumps were smoldering steadily but I tossed some tree branches and grass on them to speed their burn up. I anticipate no more effort needed on them tomorrow.

The other three stumps... I would like to finish them off also. Then I would be done with that part of the pasture, and done for the year. But they are dense and tough to burn. I anticipate them being there tomorrow after today's burn dies down. I'll try again tomorrow.

For some of the wood I have been cutting dead branches from a few fallen trees. Today I finished cutting all the branches from one of the trees, even though I haven't used all the branches for the burnings. On the to-do list this summer is to cut the trees up for firewood.

The other day as the cattle took their afternoon siesta one heifer laid on her side with her legs sticking out and no movement. After a few minutes she got up and switched to the kneeling position like the other cattle. I hate when cattle lay like that as I then think something is wrong with them.

Last night was cold. 26 F as a low on my thermometer next to the house. At 9 am the cattle's water trough still had a thin but solid layer of ice and the temperature then was 40 F. Another chilly night tonight as the thermometer is currently reading 32 F.

Stumps, Water and Planning

While the day started out well it ended on a down note.

First off I helped Fran load into her raised garden beds compost she had bought . Really high garden beds, and lots of compost to be shoveled. She can drape her cucumbers over the side and reach down to pick them without the cucumbers being on the ground.

On to CHS to buy another block of salt (with minerals) for my "girls". I spoke with an experienced employee about what trap to get to trap "prairie dogs". He corrected me and said we had gophers or brown ground squirrels. He said prairie dogs are on the other side of the mountains. Ok then, I have gophers. He recommended a poison. The label said for pocket gophers. The directions for use did not match what I researched on the internet. The label said to place the poison in the tunnel. Internet said outside the tunnel as the gophers won't eat what is in a tunnel.

I wanted a trap and all he could recommend out of the various kinds of traps the store carried was the same one I currently use on my pocket gophers, the Blackhole model. I doubt the gopher, being larger, would fit in the Blackhole. I did notice they now carried a new version of the Blackhole. This matched what the company told me last year about their planning a redesign when I called about a replacement part.

Ok, I'll try my trap on the gophers before trying the new version of the trap; else the poison.

I also bought some poison for the carpenter ants I had found in the pine tree.

I planned on attending the Planning Board meeting 6 pm tonight as Linda wrote me about a planned subdivision she and others were against. I knew I would be in the pasture burning tree stumps and as I have no watch would more than likely be late to the meeting. As controversial Planning meetings run late, I decided to feed and water my "girls" before going to work on the tree stumps. I also gave them a new block of salt.

The two north pasture stumps didn't completely burn. I thought this last effort would finish them off. I added more wood and grass and got the fire going again.

From the middle pasture I could see smoke coming from where the south pasture's "furnace fire" stump was burning underground yesterday. That fire must still be following the tree root underground - cuz we don't have coal here.

In the middle pasture two of the three stumps burnt yesterday are all burnt. The other one was half burnt and I got its fire going again. I also got the fire going on the nearby stump I had prepared yesterday evening. Then off to the three stumps closer to the river. With an ax I cut off a side root on one stump. The wood was very dense and very heavy for its size. No wonder it doesn't want to burn; it is like trying to burn steel. I got a couple stumps burning before returning home to go attend the meeting.

It was 7 pm, an hour after the meeting started. Still time to attend. Then I discovered I forgot to turn off the cattle's water. It had been running full blast for a number of hours while I was in the pasture. The ground here is porous and doesn't hold water, but I had lots of standing water. An hour later water was still standing. Of course it had to be around the cattle's water trough where they walk.

I gave the cattle more hay. I noticed they had pushed out the bottom of the snow fence in an effort to get the taller greener grass just outside the corral. I got wire and wired the bottom of the snow fence to the bottom barb wire - just to be on the safe side.

It was later now and I wasn't up to attending the Planning Board meeting. I hope the Board made the right decision.

Half day burn and pheasants

I woke up to light rain. All-in-all it totaled only 0.02 inch on my rain gauge. Enough to make everything wet. No burning today?

I picked up some of the leftover bread from the Food Bank to give to my cattle. More heifers are liking it more and more. I get more crowding to get a piece of bread and they are far less hesitant in taking it from me. So much so that I almost got bit by one heifer taking the bread from my hand as she was in such a hurry to get the bread and I was distracted by the other heifers crowding to also get it. Between bread and hay "my girls" definitely associate me with food.

I opened for the cattle the gates to the loading corral. I had kept the cattle out of this part of the corral as I was thinking about burning its mixture or hay and manure one more time. But I decided yesterday I wasn't going to burn. The cattle made quick work of the green grass growing in the parts with no mixture of hay and manure.

The pheasants, or prairie hens, or whatever their names are, were in the loading corral and ran out between two broken boards in the snowfence that surrounds the loading corral. They didn't fly but ran as fast as their legs would go.

Today they surprised me, and I them, when walking through the hayfield I tossed a banana peel away after eating a banana. I tossed the peel a few feet away to where the two pheasants were sitting/hiding. The grass is growing but is not tall by any means, but I didn't see them until they started running after I tossed the peel.

Every day or so I see the two pheasants somewhere in or around the hayfield or corral. Last week I saw a male pheasant down by the river. Even though I was a good distance away there was no mistaking it for a large male pheasant with the bright colors and long tail.

Also last week the two pheasants surprised me and the cattle when I was walking in the hayfield close to the corral and the heifers were following me on the other side of the fence. The two pheasants suddenly took flight from out of the hayfield grass. A number of cattle ran back over to the barn and away.

A school election was held today asking for more money. Earlier the school district got a large amount to build a new high school. Today they wanted around $400,000 to move into the new school. What? Wasn't that part of the bond to build a new school? At 11:30 am I was voter number 27. The polls had opened at 7 am.

On the way home I stopped to remind Bob and Jan of the election. Bob said the other night they sure could tell I was burning as they could really smell the smoke when they were outside. That was the night I had about 20 tree stumps on fire.

Mid afternoon the clouds were lightening up and the temperature rose to the 50s F. I checked my pocket gopher traps: 2 dead gophers, 2 traps with dirt, and 2 with nothing. I repositioned the 4 traps to new locations. This is harder than usual as I am finding mounds of dirt with no tunnels. I wonder if a pocket gopher is checking a new area out and then deciding not to move there. Still they can fill their tunnel with dirt so well that one can't see the former tunnel. One trap that was filled with dirt also had the tunnel filled and after several inches I lost the tunnel and could not find it again. I found a tunnel over at the next mound a few yards away.

I am done with the stumps in the south pasture as all have burned. There are stumps still in this pasture but I am leaving them alone as they are either right next to a pine tree, I want the stump as a scratching post for cattle, a sitting stump, or because I haven't cut the fallen tree by the one stump.

The smoldering stump is still burning. Really burning. Underground. In the hole where the stump formerly was is a large side hole of a former root. In this hole I can see flames burning madly. It is like looking into a furnace. I can't see what is burning, but it must be the root as the fire follows it underground.

My estimate yesterday of three or stumps remaining to be burnt again was correct: four. The rest are gone.

In the north pasture I decided to cut the last "leg" (root) of the spider stump and not burn it again. I gathered wood and reburnt the two other stumps. The smoldering stump is a good sized hole in the ground and still smoldering.

In the middle pasture I burnt again the stump I wasn't able to burn before dark yesterday. I also burnt again the smallest of the four stumps that needed another burn. I also burnt a stump I had earlier dug around but never got to. One other stump I dug around and gathered wood for a burn tomorrow.

Almost done with burning.

The Tamaracks are "needling" out now. Since they don't have leaves I can't say "leafing" out. The young needles are so cute. They look like tiny green paintbrushes along the branches.

I also got a call from a realtor. He said he had someone looking to buy property for a sod farm and was interested in my place. No thank you!

Reburn

After a cold and cloudy yesterday I awoke this morning to clear blue skies. Yay! Our overnight low had dropped below freezing so the temperature was still cool, but it looked warm with all the sunshine.

I made the rounds to check how my burnt/burning tree stumps were doing.

South pasture: (7)

• one burnt
• I cut a couple of remaining small roots, and voila, I removed one stump
• 2 were still smoldering intensely. I could see a large hole in the ground where the fire followed a side root
• 3 I gathered wood and burned again
  

I also found the remains of two other small stumps barely poking out of the ground. One was removed easily with a little digging. The other took some time digging then cutting but I also removed that one.

Middle pasture: (17)

• I found the 6 rotted stumps were all smoking holes in the ground
• 2 were burnt
• I reburned 7
• I burnt an additional stump
• I didn't get to the last stump to reburn it before dark

North pasture: (4)

• I didn't get to the 2 that need reburning, nor was I able to check on the one smoldering stump.
• The "spider" stump I cut one "leg" (root) and was able to lift and break it free of the other two "legs". The remains of one "leg" is large enough that I will have to reburn it. Hopefully this will finish it off, but this stump is very hard dense wood and does not burn easily (judging from my four years of burning it).

Of the stumps I reburnt today I feel the burning should finish many of them off this time. (*cross my fingers*). Three, maybe four, stumps may need another burn or two to finish them off. I hope soon as I am getting tired of this.

The day started off with clear skies but by noon clouds rolled in. Then during the day a rolling mix of weather: rain, sun, calm, wind from this then another direction, warm, cold, .... A couple of times I stood under a big pine tree to escape a brief rain shower. The clouds to the SE and NW looked darker blue than the clouds that came overhead.

As I burnt the last cluster of 6 in the middle pasture a front came through and it got very windy. The grass near the stumps was all green or burnt so there was no danger of the the fire getting away. The wind sure fanned the flames. Initially I was dismayed the wind was causing the fire to burn so quick and taking the heat away, but after the front passed and the wind died down, so did the fires. The wind had caused the fires to act as a blowtorch against the tree stumps.

With the nice weather last week the river sure has risen. I can see the difference in the water height over the past two days.

I noticed two of my pocket gopher traps had been sprung. But I never got the time to go back and check my traps for dead gophers or whether the traps were full of dirt.

Lonely Planet Cities game

Here is a fun game from the Lonely Planet website.

The game is images from cities around the world with a multiple choice question as to which city they are refering to.

I got a score of 81 out of 90 so I am a little proud of my knowledge.

Rest day

Today was a rest day whether I wanted to or not. I wanted to, but still felt a little guilty as I have plenty of work to do.

The forecast was rain early in the morning, then by noon sun with a high temperature in the low 60s F. The forecasters were wrong again. It didn't start to rain till 10 am. Then only 0.02 of an inch. No sun all day: very overcast. Whenever I looked the temperature was 44 F. Apparently I didn't keep a constant watch on the temperature gauge as the high temperature apparently reached 56 F. And the wind blew in the afternoon making it feel colder than it looked, and it looked cold. Yesterday 72 F and so warm I didn't wear a shirt. Today I wore a flannel shirt and coat when I was outside. What a difference a day makes!

Consequently I didn't go outside much. I fed the cattle of course. Late afternoon I decided to check on my tree stumps and pocket gopher traps. I caught two more pocket gophers. I have only one trap left in the hayfield, and that trap had dirt so I know there is one more pocket gopher left to trap. I easily found places to set my other traps in the south pasture.

As for my tree stumps, only a few were smoldering.

North pasture: (4)

• the small one that smoldered from day 1 was still smoldering.
• the "spider" stump is not smoldering, but the three "legs" are small. Later I will cut them and remove the stump.
  
• the two larger stumps are now fairly small, and kinda smoldering. The pickup load of grass, and third attempt to set the stump to burning, seems to have really worked on reducing their sizes. One more burn will finish the stumps off. All side roots are smoking holes in the ground.

Middle pasture: (16)

• two along the fence: one is burnt, the other is mostly burnt
• of the eight others: two are burnt, four are mostly burnt and only need one more burn, the final two are smaller but need more burning.
• I forgot to check on the six rotted stumps I had set on fire using grass at the very beginning.
  

South pasture: (7)

• one is burnt and done
• 2 are smoldering quite intensely. I am not sure if these stumps are from pine trees as their grain and coloration is different that pine tree stumps.
• 4 are much smaller and only need one more burn to finish them off

So I am getting close to being done - for now. I have plenty more stumps for next year.

One reason some stumps don't completely burn is that they are damp inside. One stump that I partially burnt the past three years, then dug the dirt away from last summer to air dry, was wet today when I poked and chipped at it. It was half the size from yesterday, but very wet nonetheless under the blackened surface. This stump is in the shade of other trees much of the day so that may explain why a summer of air drying didn't completely dry the stump.

Other stumps are a mixture of wood and dirt which slows and stops some fires. I chip the now exposed dirt away before reburning them.


I found a couple of small chewed-up orange balls of twine today along the fence so I removed the rest of the old baling twine from the corral fence by the barn. One less thing for the cattle to chew on.

I noticed my new wooden corral fence is sturdy. One big heifer, after eating the fresh hay I set out, wanted green grass as dessert. She turned her head sideways and got it through the fence, then leaned and leaned to eat all the green grass she could reach sliding her head until she got to the next fence post. She would withdraw her head then put her head through the fence again on the other side of the post. I could see her lean hard against the fence, and it held. *whew*

Here is a photo from a couple years ago of one of my tree stumps burning to give you an idea of what it is like. (I need to get a digital camera so you can see photos from this year.) If I remember right it took at least several more burnings after this one to completely get rid of the stump, and be left with a hole in the ground. The exposed dirt up-and-left of the fire is the remains of a stump I had finished burning the previous year. I had gotten dirt to fill in that hole.

Burning south pasture tree stumps

Another beautiful morning by the time I got up. Other than feeding my cattle I am not sure where the morning went. It seems so long ago.

Around noon or after I went to check on my burning tree stumps. Today I brought along five wooden pallets to use as burning material.

In the north pasture:

• the smoldering stump was still smoldering
• the "spider" stump by the river only had three legs left as one burnt over night
• the biggest stumps were smaller and hot, but only a very small spot on each was smoldering

For the "spider" stump I put a little material around one of the legs and lit it on fire. The other two legs I can easily cut later, and this stump is the farthest from my pile of wood for using to burn.

For the other two stumps I cut more branches of the nearby fallen dead tree and piled them around the stumps.

I seen my northern neighbor, Mr. D., was gathering the dead grass he had earlier de-thatched from his lawn using his riding lawn mower. He keeps his lawn lush and green so he had lots of material. I asked if he would dump a pickup load on my two tree stumps. I opened the gate between out pastures and we buried the two tree stumps under a heaping pickup load.

I also learned he plans to relist his house and land for sale again this summer. He also volunteered to shoot some of the prairie dogs in my pasture. I gave my ok. He is a good shot as a couple years ago I was surprised to hear two shots from my pasture and went to find him with two dead prairie dogs. He was testing his new rifle. At least today he asked first before shooting.

Along with the dead grass was green grass. It was thick, and it half burnt and half smoldered. But dumping it on the dead branches around the tree stumps enabled air to reach it from below and above. Eventually it burnt. Tomorrow I'll see if that was enough to get the stumps to continue to burn.

In the middle pasture, of the seven stumps I was burning or reburning, one was burnt, two were mostly burnt or smoldering, and the other four needed another go at burning. After I prepared them and lit them on fire, I then burnt the two I had prepared but didn't burn last night.

Then off to the stumps in the south pasture. There were seven to burn. It was dark by the time I lit the seventh stump on fire. From dark to light. A big blaze as the dry long pine needles burned fast and hot. Lots and lots of bright red embers rushed skyward with the heat and smoke only to disappear as they reached the stars. I should have brought marshmallows to toast. Food sounded good as it was long past supper time.

While gathering wood to burn in the south pasture I cut some dead branches from a tree. While cutting I noticed several holes the size of a half dollar or larger. Then I seen huge black ants going in and out. Argh! I had noticed that some of the pines that blow over seem weak and rotted. This is how they get that way!

I believe these ants are carpenter ants. (More inf0 here). According to the literature the ants to not cause the tree problems; they take advantage of soft weak wood and supposedly are not harmful to the tree. I don't know... I don't like them.

This is a big tree. I may only be able to get my arms around (maybe) half the tree trunk. I want to save this tree and don't want to lose it.

Before it got dark I checked one pocket gopher trap. Yup, a dead pocket gopher. By another (now burning) tree stump were lots of fresh mounds of dirt. Tomorrow, as it was too dark to find the gopher's tunnel and set the trap.

I fed my cattle hay when I got home. Earlier in the day they would follow me along the chain link fence as I walked to and from the pasture. Hoping for more bread I guess as their feeder was full of hay. A busy day as I never had a chance to stop and give them some bread.

Almost 10 pm when I got inside the house. Another late day. Too late for supper, but I'm not going to miss eating two nights in a row. I found odds and ends and made a late meal.

Today was beautiful with a high temperature of 72 F. Too warm to wear a shirt - even a t-shirt - when working hard in the sun. The setting sun usually means a quick turn to cool air but the temperature stayed warm well past sundown tonight and I didn't need to wear a shirt until I finished working.

Towards evening three kids on an ATV were crossing the field to my south going from their house over to the trees. Lots of giggling and squealing by the girls as the ATV bounced over the field. It appeared they would get a few branches and wood and take them back to the house. A half dozen times or more they crossed the field. Young and carefree on a warm summer night.

As the sun set I could see a line of clouds approaching from the west. The weather forecasters are predicting rain overnight with an approaching cold front. I hope not, else not much rain as I want my tree stumps to burn up.

Wood smoke smell

I smell of wood smoke. Guess what I've been doing?

I started the morning with a phone call asking if I would be willing to serve as an election judge in Whitefish. That's not my precinct, but then again when I turned in my application they didn't promise me I would get my precinct. Whitefish isn't far away so I said yes. The next step is to get my information packet and then attend an education session in May.

A beautiful morning. I guess the temperature got down to freezing overnight but by the time I got up it was warming up nicely. It just takes a little sun.

I put a new toe strap on my bicycle's pedal. Then I took the good saw handle and put it on the good saw blade. Naturally the handle's holes didn't match up. I drilled new holes. Either the drill bits were dull or the blade was hardened well - or both.

The "girls" are continuing to warm to me. More will eat bread from my hand and the two bravest actually are aggressive enough they end up with the most bread. I have to remember to toss some pieces over to the more hesitant heifers.

One salt block is in small pieces. Each day I wash the dirt off the pieces. The heifers watch me and I wonder if that gave them an idea. Tonight I found one small piece of salt at the bottom of the water trough. Was the heifer trying to wash the dirt of it? Or just get rid of the salt so I'll bring a new salt block? I noticed the piece of salt in the water because I seen a small area of white "foam" on top of the water above the piece of salt.

My additional boards to the feeder seems to have done the trick as no heifers go into the feeder even though I do occasionally see one with her front legs in the feeder.

The answer to "green grass or hay?" is green grass. While switching the saw handle I noticed one heifer on her knees and her head under one part of the corral fence in order to eat as much green grass in the yard as she could - even though hay was in the feeder. This is a four foot section that is an odd patch section. I plan to put a gate here later when I have time. In the meantime I added another board to the spot as a temporary fix. I don't want a heifer to break this section in an effort to get that extra little bit of grass.

Then off to check on the nine tree stumps I burnt yesterday. I found one stump burnt down, one stump still smoldering, one stump's side roots burnt away with holes in the ground when the fire followed the roots and continued to smolder. The remaining stumps weren't smoldering, or were just barely smoldering on a small part of them.

I gathered more dead tree branches and grass and lit them anew.

One stump - the one where the prairie dog had its burrow - was an unusual shape. It has four roots leaving the center part where the tree stood; each root equally long before bending and going down into the ground. It was a "+" shape. The center part - where one expected a tap root - didn't have any root. Granted this entire root structure originally was in the ground before I dug then burnt the root. Still it was an odd shape. Reminded me of a spider.

I lit a fire around three of the four legs. The fourth leg was small enough I will cut it later; the other three I wanted to shrink, if not eliminate. With the "legs" gone I can remove the root.

This is one tough stump. This is the fourth or fifth time I burnt this stump. Originally the stump was a yard or more high and each year I reduce its size, but don't eliminate it completely. I checked before returning home tonight and my latest attempt didn't eliminate the legs. Maybe one leg was smoldering. I'll see tomorrow.

In addition to my re-burning the previous stumps I burnt an additional two stumps. I prepared burning material for two more stumps but held off on lighting them afire. It was getting dark and cooler and I decided I wanted the fire to be during the warmth of the day - it is harder for a fire to be hot enough overnight when the temperature is near freezing for the stump to catch fire.

It appears several of my re-burn attempts were successful at catching the stumps afire as they were smoldering nicely when I walked home. Their smoke rose a bit before a light breeze carried it off in a direction. The smoke looked like a sideways "L" as it hung in the cool evening air.

I wore gloves today and my hands thanked me for it. It is so much easier to pick up prickly pine cones when wearing gloves.

Under the big pine tree near the river the owl must favor one side of the tree as I found more "owl balls" (or whatever the name is for the fur and bones they regurgitate) on one side of the tree.

I also came across the nest for the pair of geese that stay here in the spring. Each year they have their nest at this location on the river bank about a yard from the water's edge. I found two halves of a shell so I believe the baby made it OK without a predator getting it.

Earlier the beaver skeleton got broken apart when I ran the harrow over the north pasture. I tossed the bones in a fire and it appears they were blackened and not burnt.

Tomorrow? More burning.